2011 colour chart

[Fugazi]

There's an interesting new video (the third) on the Lego Disney Cars website, and while it's worth watching to learn more about the process of creating prototype parts, it also allows us a quick look at what appears to be the current Lego colour chart.

Screen capture:

The two physical palettes seen here include the same colour samples, albeit in slightly different positions.

Based on the official 2010 colour chart from Jan Beyer as shared by CopMike (link and below) I attempted to identify the colours of the 2011 palette.

2011 palette:

These are all my guesses, so there may be errors. In white are the visible changes from 2010:

315 Silver Metallic replaces 131 Silver

316 Titanium Metallic replaces 148 Dark Grey Metallic

321-326: New colours as first mentioned by Aanchir in his Complete LDD Color Chart

321 Dark Azure: A medium bright blue, possibly the colour of the ADU space suits in Alien Conquest

322 Medium Azure: A sligtly lighter blue than 321 -- release unknown

323 Aqua: the colour of two Cars in 8487 Flo's V8 Cafe (Disney Cars)

324 Medium Lavender: A dark lavender -- release unknown

325 Lavender: A light lavender, possibly the colour of the boom box in the Collectible Minifigs Series 5

326 Spring Yellowish Green: A very light green, similar to the now retired 120 Light Yellowish Green -- release unknown

I may have missed other minor substitutions (for example, has 111 Transparent Brown been replaced by a similar but distinct colour?)

Overall, it would appear that the colour palette has grown by 6 colours for 2011 -- assuming of course that this palette includes only active colours. Until an official document shows up, this is the best we have.

I should also add that 11 Pastel Blue (Maersk blue) is absent from this 2011 palette, nor was it present on the 2010 chart. This is possibly because it's a restricted (licensed) colour, so it's not available to designers except in very specific conditions.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Fugazi

[Baylego]

How interesting! Those sound like some very useful new colors, lavender especially.

[Dazmundo]

Looking at your original picture all the colours that you have identified as changed have not got a white dot on them, however a couple of others also don't have dots so I wonder if you have missed a couple of changes.

I don't know anything about Lego colours so I could be totally wrong but I thought would share my observation.

D

[Fugazi]

Your observation is relevant, and the thought had crossed my mind. Beside the 'new' colours, most of the tile samples without the dot are recent colours, like 308, 311 and 312. However 124 Bright-Reddish Violet, 126 Trans Bright Bluish Violet and 111 Transparent Brown also appear to have dot-less tiles, so it's possible that those have also been recently changed. Comparing parts in those colours from 2011 sets to older parts of the equivalent colour should reveal whether there were any changes. On the other hand, on the second (lower) palette in the video capture different tiles have the white dot missing, so it's difficult to draw conclusions. Hopefully official information will surface eventually (perhaps in LDD).

[Fugazi]

I have updated the first post with the official names of the new 2011 colours, as found in LDD.

Moreover, it would appear that the official colour list has been released on other forums. On top of the changes detailed above which have been confirmed, an old colour has been reintroduced to the palette: 20 Nature, known on Bricklink as Milky White. I wonder in what theme will this one show up?

[Aanchir]

I have updated the first post with the official names of the new 2011 colours, as found in LDD.

Moreover, it would appear that the official colour list has been released on other forums. On top of the changes detailed above which have been confirmed, an old colour has been reintroduced to the palette: 20 Nature, known on Bricklink as Milky White. I wonder in what theme will this one show up?

Technically, that was never removed. It was also on the 2010 color palette (see here), and was used at least as recently as 2008. To my knowledge, "nature" is just the color of uncolored ABS/polypropylene granulate. It's basically 40 Transparent but with different materials (note that actual "transparent" parts, at least those with the usual glassy look, are invariably made from polycarbonate rather than ABS).

This is probably the reason it's still on the color palette-- they can presumably still produce it at a moment's notice, because it doesn't need any special plastic, treatment, or formulation of dyes.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Aanchir

[legolijntje]

From the LOWlug ambassador:

The official 2011 colour chart (whitout names, but whit numbers) in pdf

It's just a picture taken from a powerpoint, because the LOWlug amabssador asked lego about their new colour chart.

Edited May 13, 2011 by legolijntje

[Aanchir]

From the LOWlug ambassador:

The official 2011 colour chart (whitout names, but whit numbers) in pdf

It's just a picture taken from a powerpoint, because the LOWlug amabssador asked lego about their new colour chart.

Nice. Here's the names, with notes wherever they might be misleading to those used to Bricklink names:

1 White

5 Brick Yellow

21 Bright Red

23 Bright Blue

24 Bright Yellow

26 Black

28 Dark Green (BL's Green)

192 Reddish Brown

194 Medium Stone Grey (BL's Light Bluish Gray)

199 Dark Stone Grey (BL's Dark Bluish Gray)

18 Nougat (BL's Flesh)

37 Bright Green

40 Transparent

41 Transparent Red

42 Transparent Light Blue

43 Transparent Blue (BL's Trans-Dark Blue

44 Transparent Yellow

48 Transparent Green

49 Transparent Fluorescent Green (BL's Trans-Neon Green)

102 Medium Blue

106 Bright Orange

111 Transparent Brown (BL's Trans-Black)

119 Bright Yellowish Green (BL's Lime)

140 Earth Blue (BL's Dark Blue)

141 Earth Green (BL's Dark Green)

154 Dark Red

182 Transparent Bright Orange (BL's Trans-Orange, for most non-Clikits sets)

221 Bright Purple (BL's Dark Pink, for post-2003 sets only)

20 Nature (BL's Milky White)

38 Dark Orange

47 Transparent Fluorescent Reddish-Orange (BL's Trans-Neon Orange)

113 Transparent Medium Reddish Violet (BL's Trans-Dark Pink)

124 Bright Reddish Violet (BL's Magenta)

126 Transparent Bright Bluish Violet (BL's Trans-Dark Purple)

135 Sand Blue

138 Sand Yellow (BL's Dark Tan)

143 Transparent Fluorescent Blue (BL's Trans-Medium Blue)

151 Sand Green

191 Flame Yellowish Orange (BL's Bright Light Orange)

208 Light Stone Grey (BL's Very Light Bluish Gray)

212 Light Royal Blue (BL's Bright Light Blue)

222 Light Purple (BL's Bright Pink)

226 Cool Yellow (BL's Bright Light Yellow)

268 Medium Lilac (BL's Dark Purple)

283 Light Nougat (BL's Light Flesh)

294 Phosphorescent Green (BL's Glow-In-Dark Transparent and Glow-In-Dark Opaque for all post-2005 sets)

297 Warm Gold (BL's Pearl Gold)

308 Dark Brown

311 Transparent Bright Green (BL's Trans-Bright Green for post-2009 sets only)

312 Medium Nougat (BL's Medium Dark Flesh)

315 Silver Metallic (BL's Pearl Light Grey, Pearl Dark Grey, Metallic Silver, or Flat Silver in summer 2010 or 2011 sets, with the name depending on who's writing the inventory. Flat Silver is the name used most consistently on Bricklink)

316 Titanium Metallic (BL's Pearl Dark Grey in summer 2010 or 2011 sets. They're more consistent with this one, thankfully)

321 Dark Azure (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color used for Alien Conquest's ADU uniforms)

322 Medium Azure (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color not yet identified in any sets)

323 Aqua (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color used for some Cars characters)

324 Medium Lavender (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color seen in upcoming LEGO merchandise but not yet identified in any sets)

325 Lavender (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color used for fitness trainer's boom box in Collectible Minifigures Series 5)

326 Spring Yellowish Green (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color not yet indentified in any sets)

Overall, 58 colors. That's a bit fewer than my recent estimate in the Cars topic although it fails to include some colors that have been seen this year like 299 Lacquered Gold (BL's Metallic Gold), or any other lacquered colors like those that appeared in Collectible Minifigures Series 3 (specifically, a gold color which seems different from lacquered gold and a copper color, both with unknown Material IDs).

Edited May 13, 2011 by Aanchir

[Superkalle]

Excellent post Fugazi

And clever of you to reverse engineer the colors like that.